Anti-gay rights ref. signature check to be done Sept. 1

The signature check for Referendum 71 – the attempt to overturn Washington’s new “everything but marriage” same-sex domestic partner law – will be done Sept. 1, state elections officials said Wednesday.

The secretary of state has reviewed about 85 percent of the referendum’s approximately 137,689 signatures that R-71 sponsors turned in late last month.

“Judging by the rate that signature checkers have been reviewing the R-71 signatures, we expect the signature checking process will be completed by September 1, and possibly even the day before then,” state Elections Director Nick Handy said in a statement. “Once the signature check process is finished, we will announce whether Referendum 71 has enough valid signatures to be placed on this November’s statewide ballot.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, signature checkers had reviewed 117,069 signatures – 103,198 have been approved and 13,871 have been rejected. The signature error rate currently is 11.85 percent. Based on the number of signatures they turned in, the error rate can’t go over 12.4 percent.